Free Speech, Due Process and Trial by Jury
Less than two years on the job, Aundrea Holt assumed legal support for the airline's nationwide paid sick leave policy and administration, played an instrumental role in American’s nationwide sexual harassment prevention training and led the legal department's move to its new corporate headquarters, Skyview 8 .She credits her parents and two federal judges for her success.
A West Point alum, Noah Webster led Zix through a transformational acquisition and capital raise last year. But his most interesting success for the security tech business involved a URL, an Oakland artist and past due garbage collection bills. Not bad for the son of a "toilet paper salesman."
Seven years ago, Tracy Preston traded in her Levi jeans for Jimmy Choo shoes to become the GC at Neiman Marcus. Last year, she defeated a $1 billion lawsuit brought by a hedge fund, executed a complex transaction that extend the company's funded debt and played a strategic role in the opening of Neiman Marcus Hudson Yards, the company’s first store in New York City. She has more to come in 2020.
Pier 1 endured changes in style, changes in market, changes in judges and changes in its legal leadership to beat back stockholder charges of securities fraud in epic fashion. And as a result they are finalists for Litigation of the Year in the 2019 DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards.
But in addition to those challenges, the company is now also coping with the untimely death of its general counsel.Ashlie Alaman returned home Monday after a four day mission trip to Reynosa, Mexico, which is one of the most dangerous towns on the border. She and seven other women from their church delivered food, clothes, sewing machines to 400 migrants in a shelter hoping for asylum in the U.S. Alaman is a "force of nature" in the pro bono world. "I absolutely love being a lawyer ... to help change people’s lives,” she says.
When royalty owners sue oil and gas producers in Oklahoma, you play by Oklahoma rules. Because of those rules, the results can be ugly. But when Range Resources was sued in Oklahoma, GC David Poole decided to fight. And the results of that decision are now nominated for Litigation of the Year in the 2019 DFW Outstanding Corporate Counsel Awards.
James Sheppard took his first flight on Southwest Airlines when he was a high school freshman. Twenty-five years later, Sheppard is a senior litigation attorney for Southwest who took two major multimillion-dollar lawsuits to trial in California last year and won both of them. This is the story of how he did it.
The general counsel remained cool under pressure during Aimbridge's sale to Advent International (with outside counsel keeping the deal moving along), which helped the company go on to become the global leader in hotel management with its acquisition of Interstate.
Navin Rao led Michaels Stores through an IPO, two major acquisitions, the liquidations of its Aaron Brothers and Pat Catan’s store chains and the issuance of a $500 million senior notes offering. But did you know that Sabrina the Teenage Witch bought Rao drinks? Or that he now has a new GC job? The Texas Lawbook has the details.
Stephanie Zapata Moore has been busy the past couple years. The Vistra GC was instrumental in the company's spinoff from Energy Future Holdings. It didn't stop there. Last year, she finalized the integration of the legal and compliance functions related to the Dynegy acquisition, oversaw the purchases of Ambit Energy and Crius Energy Trust and engineered a $1 billion private securities offering. And, of course, there's the marathon she ran in Fargo, N.D.
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